A Key Without its Lock
by BURITOES
Summary: This story is based on the cirque du freak series by darren shan.


"Danielle, I'm going into town, do you need anything?" I yelled, walking out the door to my castle.

"No! Bye!" My best friend in the whole world, Danielle yelled back from our parlor.

I walked outside, the sun stung my eyes. I put up my hood on my new shiny red cloak. The town was quiet today, which was unusual because it was a nice day out. No children were running around, no adults were working or greeting their spouses at their front doors. I walked down to the market. I soon realized that it was Sunday and everyone was at church, unlike Danielle and me. We vampires, really we are. I walked over to the nearby inn. I used my vampire abilities to listen for movement in rooms. I needed to feed, I was getting weak. I searched at least twelve rooms until I found a room that had someone in it. I knocked on the door.

"Hello? Hello? I'm coming," the person in the room said, opening the door.

"Help me, please!" I said kneeling on the cobblestone ground. "I was attacked! They took all of my money!" I said trying to get this lady to let me in.

"Oh, you poor thing! Come inside, sit down," The lady said, leading me inside her home. I have never been inside a room from the inn. They were fairly small, but nice and quaint. I sat in a chair that was so fluffed up, if I relaxed my muscles, my whole torso would perish into the olive green cloud.

"Hello, I am Esther Brownling. You are welcome to stay inside my temporary home, but I only have one bed," The woman said.

"Oh, that's okay, I will be all right," I replied. I was starting to get impatient. I needed to feed.

"Please, lay down, I'll get you some tea," Esther offered.

"No, that's okay, in fact, I'll just leave. Nice meeting you though," I said, and got up to leave.

"No! You will stay here and get better!" The woman said, taking hold of my arm, "Stay here!"

"No, I want to leave! Let me go!" I said, freeing myself from this psycho woman's grip. I ran out of her home and caught my breath. I ran home, I ran as fast as I could, afraid if I slowed down, she would catch me.

"Danielle! Danielle!" I said, searching for my friend. Once I found her, I explained to her what had happened.

"Oh my god, that's weird, that lady is crazy," Danielle said.

"I know! She insisted that I stay with her. I bolted out of there as fast as I could." I said.

After that, we both ate dinner: steaks (rare of course.) with some fresh red wine.

"To us and our vampireness!" Danielle said, lifting her chalet in the air.

"Yes, to us!" I said, lifting my chalet as well.

Later that night, getting to bed was difficult. I was thinking about Esther. She was the strangest person I have ever met. Suddenly, there was a knock on the big front door. I went downstairs, and opened the door.

"Esther?" I asked the person standing in my doorway.

"Hello, I am here to take care of you and your sister," She replied. She was the most polite person I have ever met.

"Oh, umm, okay, but she's not my sister, she's my friend," I said, correcting her mistake.

"Oh, what's the difference?" She said while walking into my home. I was skeptical about letting her stay in my house, but I figured _hey, if someone wants to come into my house to take care of me, why not let her? _She invited herself upstairs to our guest room (that we never used.) and unpacked her belongings.

"Well, this is roomy and a little dusty, but we best make do with what we can," Esther said, still unpacking.

"I'm sorry; we don't have any other sheets, or anything," I said, trying to make conversation.

"Oh, it's quite okay, I can make my own. I'm very good with a needle and thread," Esther replied.

"Oh, okay. Well, goodbye," I said, and then left. I went back to sleep easier now for some reason.

I woke to the smell of eggs and butter. I guessed Esther was downstairs making breakfast. I put on my dark purple satin robe and headed downstairs. I was right, Esther was downstairs. She smiled and said hello to me when I walked into our kitchen. The smell of breakfast jumped into my nostrils so fast, I almost fell over. It was a good kind of falling though; I had not smelt breakfast in over eighty years.

"Come on and eat, I made eggs, French toast, and Belgium waffles. Oh, would you wake up Danielle for me?" Esther said. I started going up the stairs, but Danielle was already halfway down them,

"I heard Belgium waffles, I'm up!" She said, and passed me down to the dining room. I sat in the chair next to her. She was already on her second waffle. Esther was sitting across from us, she was eating an egg. I took two pieces of French toast.

"Esther, this is really good. I haven't had food this good since...well, ever," Danielle complimented Esther's cooking.

"Why, thank you. I have been cooking for years," Esther replied. Her cooking was delightful. I had never had anything like this. After breakfast, Danielle and I went into town to get some things for Esther. Bed sheets, cooking utensils, and other things.

We returned to our house shortly after, with many things.

"Esther! Esther, are you home?" I called no answer. We called her name a few more times and still no answer. We checked her room and she wasn't in there. I started to leave.

"Camilla, wait. Look at this," She said, handing me a piece of paper.

"Hey, I know those people!" I said, "They were vampires too. Why does Esther have their names on a list, as well as ours?" I said, examining the paper.

"Umm, well, maybe Esther is having a party and those people won't get an invite. I don't know," Danielle replied.

"Wait, those people, th-th-they d-d-died a few months ago," I said. I was speechless.

"You don't think…" Danielle was too speechless. We left the room when we heard the front door open. We ran into my room and sat on my bed.

"Oh no, Danielle, it's getting harder to breath! She's poisoned us, help!" I said dramatically. We both laughed and went downstairs.

Esther was sewing something. She had two different colored fabrics, one was orange, and the other was dark purple. They were beautiful. Next to them were two necklaces, one orange, and the other purple. We stared at the dresses; we couldn't believe that she made them herself. The details were so precise.

Danielle and I looked at each other and smiled, we knew something special was coming up. We walked out the front door and walked into town. The town was flooded with people. It was very unusual. Usually there wasn't this many people in town, but today something had to have been going on. A party maybe or someone's birthday. Everyone was dressed really fancy. I walked past a flier that caught my eye. It said that tonight was the masquerade ball. I remembered that Esther was making us those dresses; we were going to the masquerade ball!

We returned home to two finished, beautiful dresses. Danielle almost cried, and I was speechless.

"Here, these are for the ball tonight," Esther said, handing us our dresses.

I took mine and walked up to my room to try it on. Danielle followed shortly and tried hers on. Mine fit perfectly and Danielle's was a little tight, but she would never let Esther know. She handed us our necklaces down in the foyer. Mine was purple sapphire, and Danielle's was orange topaz. And then, she handed us our masks. They were sparkly and glittery and were of course, purple and orange. We hugged her and left. We were picked up by a horse drawn carriage. Beautiful white horses were pulling us inside of a red satin covered carriage. We waved goodbye to Esther and smiled. She waved back and we went to the ball.

Danielle and I have never been inside the town hall. That's where the ball was being held. It was massively huge. The floors were covered in rose petals. Everybody's outfits were beautiful, but not nearly as pretty as ours.

"Excuse me, would you like to dance?" A handsome gentleman asked me, holding out his hand. He had ten scars on the tips of his fingers. It was awkward.

"I would love to," I said, taking his outstretched hand.

We danced; he was nice and smart, and beautiful. Time seemed to stop when I was with him. Everything was moving slowly. All of a sudden, time moved fast again, and we stopped dancing.

"I'm sorry, I have to go," The man said, he bowed and kissed my hand. I blushed.

"Wait, what's your name?" I said, grabbing his arm.

"Derrick, yours?"

"Oh, umm, Camillia," I said.

"Nice to meet you Camillia," He said, and then left.

Danielle and I went outside to meet our carriage driver and his horses. I said, nothing on the way home, I just sat there and smiled. At home, Esther asked us how the ball was. I said it was as perfect as I could ever be. I went up into my room and fell asleep. I didn't even take off my dress. I wish this feeling could last forever. I woke up and got dressed into my normal clothes. I walked downstairs.

I passed the mirror by the front door. I didn't know why we had it there; I couldn't see myself, though I wanted to. Danielle is a good artist, so she has drawn pictures of me, so I could remember what I looked like. I haven't seen myself since before I was turned into a vampire. I have long brown stringy hair and big, green hazel eyes, from what I remember. Danielle was turned into a vampire before me. She has medium length, straight, red hair, and brown eyes.

It has always bothered me that I could never see myself. I went into town in search for Derrick. I had to see him again. Danielle still did not know about him, I wasn't ready to tell her I liked someone. I was walking around and had not seen him yet.

"Excuse me; do you know anyone named Derrick?" I asked a lady in her mid thirties.

"Oh, yes! He lives up in the outskirts of town. I have met him a few times, he is very nice," The lady said, and continued to walk.

I kept walking and was soon out of town, I saw a house and I knew it was Derrick's. I walked towards it. It was pretty small. I knocked on the door. An average sized man answered the door, He had a small crop of orange hair on his head, and three scars down his left cheek.

"Ummm, hello, is a Derrick here?" I asked, expecting this man to say no.

"Yes, who are you?" The man asked.

"Oh, I'm Camillia, Derrick knows me...from the ball," I said.

"Oh yes, he cannot stop talking about you," He said. "I am Mr. Larten Crepsley."

I walked into their small house. It wasn't the cleanest house in the village, but it was less dusty than my house. Derrick noticed me and smiled. I walked over to him.

"Hello," I said, greeting him.

"Uh, hi," Derrick said, getting up off of the chair that he was sitting on. He shook my hand. I saw his scars again, they were weird. He sat back down in the chair and I sat on a chair next to him.

"Derrick, Camillia says you two met at the masquerade ball," Mr. Crepsley said.

"Uh, yeah we did, yesterday," Derrick replied.

"Isn't that a coincidence, two vampires meet at a ball?" Mr. Crepsley said.

I gasped; I didn't know how this man knew about my being a vampire.

"Oh yes, I know. See, I too am a vampire. So is Derrick, well he is only a half vampire. See his scars, you do not have them because as vampires evolved, they developed new ways to blood people, we are from the future. Vampires can also time travel. It is amazing, yet sad," He said.

"Whoa, so, you're from the future? What year are you from? What's it like there? What technology do they have? Who's the Queen?" I asked. I wanted to visit the future. It seemed so interesting.

"That, I cannot tell you. It could affect the future gravely if you knew," Mr. Crepsley said.

"Okay, but, could I maybe come with you to the future sometime?" I asked Derrick and .

"Well, uh, it depends, I mean, well, umm, I don't know," Mr. Crepsley said.

"Oh, well it has always been my dream to time travel, so that's why I wanted to come along, but if I can't, I will understand," I said, trying to sound sad, so they would feel sorry and let me come along. I even sobbed a little.

Derrick motioned for Mr. Crepsley to come by him. They whispered in low murmurs. Derrick smiled and Mr. Crepsley stroked his scars.

"He said yes! You can come to the future with us!" Derrick exclaimed. I jumped up and down with excitement, until I realized something.

"Wait; came my best friend, Danielle come too? She is also a vampire. I know she would love to come with us," I asked.

"Well, since your coming, I guess she can," Mr. Crepsley said. He rubbed his scars once again. I was happy, I was time traveling. I was time traveling with my best friend.

"Danielle! Danielle! You will not believe the news I have! Danielle?" I said. I found her in her room, stuffing cheese croutons into her big mouth.

"Hey, guess where we're going for our next vacation?" I said, barely holding back what I had to say.

"Where?" She said, expecting me to say Avaloch, where we go every three months.

"Nope, we're going to 2006!" I said, jumping up and down like I had to use the bathroom.

"What? We're going where? With who? What? Are you on something?" She looked at me like I had been lying.

"I met this boy at the ball, Derrick; he's a vampire too, from the year 2009. His mentor, Larten Crepsley said we could go with him," I explained.

"Wait, Larten Crepsley?" She asked like she didn't hear me the first time.

"Yeah, tomorrow we are going to the future! Doesn't that sound delightful? Goodnight! See you in the morning!" I said, and then skipped off to my room. I sat on my bed and smiled. I would travel in time tomorrow. What would I do when I got home? Would I tell people of my travels? I would probably write everything in my diary, read it every two days and smile the biggest smile ever once I was finished reading it.

It was hard to fall asleep that night. I tossed and turned all night. I finally got out of bed and dressed in a tunic and leggings. I left my castle and walked around town. No one was awake; it was at least four o' clock in the morning. I was going to feed tonight, but I ran into Mr. Crepsley.

"Oh, hello, nice night, or is it morning, how are you?" He said.

"Oh, I'm fine. Couldn't sleep, I've been thinking about time," I said. A big cheek to cheek smile formed on my face. Mr. Crepsley had a serious look on his face.

"I think it would be best if you didn't come time traveling with us," He said, my heart sank, I sighed.

"B-b-but, why?" I asked and I started to cry.

"No, please do not cry, you cannot come with us because of your friend, Danielle, well it is a long story. Anyways, I am very sorry, see you around," He said.

I stood under the street light crying. I finally went home when the sun started to come up. I went home and Esther was waiting at the door, she was waiting for me.

"Where have you been? Do you know I have been waiting here since six o'clock? I have been worried sick," Rage flared up in her eyes.

"Hmmm, yeah I'm sure you have," I said. I wasn't taking any of her crap today.

"Excuse me? What did you say to me?" She asked like she didn't hear what I just said.

"You heard me, oh, and also, I want you, and your nagging, controlling, whining ass out of here!" I said, and started to walk upstairs, but Esther pulled my arm and I was face to face with the devil. She slapped me.

"Don't ever speak to me like that again!" She ranted.

"I will speak however I want in my house! Go pack your things and get out of my house!" I turned and went upstairs. I went into Esther's bedroom. I started throwing her things out the window. She heard what was going on and ran upstairs I quickly locked the door and continued to throw her things out the window. I was throwing her things out the window: dressers, drawers, candles, books, bed spreads, pillows.

I finally stopped and sat on the bed. Esther was pounding on the door. Danielle was still sleeping; she was the heaviest sleeper I knew. Esther made her way into the bedroom. She was screaming and I was getting scared. I backed up and she came closer.

"What do you think you're doing?" She roared. I backed up farther. She continued towards me. I backed up more. I fell off of the bed and onto the floor. Esther was right above me. I held my hands in front of my face. She pulled me up and gripped her hands around my neck. I did nothing, I was a vampire, it took a lot of strength to kill (or strangle) a vampire. We have very tough skin; it would take a lot more to kill me. I was scared though, this had never happened to me. It was also fun; I had no intention on dying tonight. She dragged me over to her bag that I had not thrown out the window. She took out a wooden stake.

Now I was really scared. I had two choices: I either died, or I fed. I used all of my strength to lift myself up so I was right in front her. I took a deep breath and put my mouth to her neck, sunk my teeth in and drank, she didn't do anything. She stood there and took it. After about five seconds of drinking, I pulled back and coughed. Her blood was poison to me.

"Thought you could suck my blood and let my die did you?" Esther said.

"What are you? What's going on?" I asked, still spitting blood out of my mouth.

"Oh, it's a drink that I drank when you went upstairs; it's like a poison, but not deadly. It just makes you weak, weak enough to let me stab you in the heart with a stake. See, I was going to kill Danielle first, but you made me mad, and I never liked you," She snickered and I tried to think of something to do.

This obvious vampire hunter was going to kill me; I acted quickly, got to my feet, and jumped out of the window of my two story castle. Esther called out my name and I lay on the ground, it was a while before I could get up, I'm pretty sure I had a broken ankle and a fractured rib. Esther was smart, but she didn't know vampires have extra strong bones, so I could jump from almost any height and the worst that would happen to me would maybe be a broken leg. Esther ran down the stairs and came outside, I was standing there. She looked at me, she rubbed her eyes, and then, she fainted. I gasped and ran to her. I shook her and tried to get her up.

When all else failed, I started to walk back to the front door, all of a sudden something, or someone grabbed my from behind, I struggled and was squirming, trying to free myself. I was soon in a head lock. I knew it was Esther, she grabbed my hands and I couldn't move, out of nowhere, Derrick was by my side, he was fighting Esther off and I had about five minutes to wake Danielle up. I ran into the huge front door and flitted to my room. Flitting is when a vampire runs so fast, they start traveling in super-human speed. It's almost as if time was standing still, it was pretty cool.

I woke up Danielle and we jumped out her window to where Esther and Derrick were fighting. We both snarled, which vampires don't usually do, but it seemed appropriate. Esther looked up, fear struck her eyes. She acted fast; she struck Derrick in the rib with her elbow. He grunted and then laughed. (Again, tough skin.) She rolled on her side; she was trying to protect herself. Derrick bit into her neck, I yelled out at him, saying not to, she drank poison, but it must have worn off because she screamed in pain, and then lay there.

I thought she was dead, Danielle turned her head away. Derrick stood up, looked at me, stooped down, and looked at her. She opened her eyes a little and moaned. He put his hands on her neck, turned her head, and like that, she was dead. He snapped her neck and she was dead. I almost cried it was kind of sad; she came into our home to take care of us. But, then again, she did try to kill me, and would have killed Danielle, so I don't feel that bad. I looked at Derrick; he was staring at her cold, lifeless body. He walked over to Danielle and me.

"I have to get a shovel," He said, and flitted back to his house.

He soon arrived with three shovels, one for each of us.

"Ha! You really expect me to bury this lady?" Danielle asked, crossing her arms. He threw the shovel at her feet.

"The sun will be up soon, you have three choices. One: get fried, two: get hanged for murdering someone, or three: take that shovel, and dig," He said, looking her in the eyes.

She took the shovel and pierced the ground with it. I followed; in about twenty minutes we had a hole that was deep enough to burry Esther. Derrick wrapped a big, heavy green cloth that he got from somewhere, over her, threw her in the hole, and set her on fire. The smell of burning flesh stung our nostrils. Once she was gone, Danielle and I went back to our home, and Derrick flitted to his cottage. I started talking to Danielle.

"So, why don't you want to time travel?" I asked.

"Ummm, well, I just don't want to. I mean, you know how time travel is, crappy service, you lose things; you can't get back to the right time. I don't like it," She answered.

"How do you know what time travel's like? We don't know how to do that yet," I answered, questioning what she had said.

"Oh, yeah I forgot to tell you something. I am from 2006, well technically I am from the 1700's but I got into trouble with the vampire council and was transported here. Oh, and I dated Larten," she said.

"What, but he's like in his mid fifties! What are you talking about?"

"Ummm, it's a long story, anyways, good night!" She said brushing past me and went upstairs to bed. I stood in the doorway wondering. I thought Danielle was my best friend, I told her everything about me. I told her my deepest darkest secrets, and she couldn't tell me this one thing. I didn't want to talk to her anymore. I was leaving; I went upstairs and packed a few small things into a small travel bag. The thought of leaving was painful, but I felt as if I had to. I walked out my door and realized I was now homeless. Well, I could go to the inn, I could drain a family of their blood and take over their home, or I could go to Derrick's house. I flitted to his house and knocked on the door, after three minutes of knocking, I used my vampire powers (which I rarely used.) to knock the door down. Derrick was asleep on the couch, Mr. Crepsley was nowhere in sight. I walked over to Derrick and shook him awake.

"I didn't eat the last slice of cake!'' He yelled, not aware he was awake yet.

"Where is Mr. Crepsley?'' I asked.

"I don't know, why?" Derrick asked.

"I want to time travel to the year 2006," I demanded. "So, where is Mr. Crepsley?''

"I think he is out feeding," Derrick said. I realized I needed to feed.

"So, you got any meat around here?" I asked.

"Yeah, we have a ham in the fridge, why?" He asked. I ignored his question and plunged into the fridge and took out the perfect ham. My eyes glowed red and I stuck almost my whole head into the ham; the sweet blood ran down my throat like running water down a stream.

My skin was glowing a healthy shade of grey. I had finished off the ham and I wanted more, I craved more. I realized Esther's body was still underground at my house; I almost flitted to my house to drain her of her blood, but then I realized we burned her body. I started to calm down though. Derrick was looking at me. His jaw three feet below his chin, my mouth had blood all around it, I was not aware of what I was doing. Mr. Crepsley walked through the door, he looked at me and his eyes almost popped out of his head. He ran towards me and grabbed my shoulders.

"What happened? Are you okay?" He asked me, I opened my mouth to talk, but no words came out. I dropped to the floor, I had fainted, passed out, I may have even died (for good) I was laying there; the faint sounds of voices surrounded me.


End file.
